Kate Rancourt

I am a PhD candidate in the Clinical Psychology program. I am originally from Calgary, Alberta and completed my Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Psychology at the University of Alberta in 2011. I have had a long-standing interest in interpersonal relationships and health. For my Honours research, I studied the influence of couples’ communication on their marital and psychological adjustment to colorectal cancer. As part of the Couples and Sexual Health Laboratory, I have extended my interest in couples’ interactions to study interpersonal factors that influence couples’ adjustment to female sexual pain and other sexual problems. My comprehensive research examines whether women with and without sexual problems exhibit different cognitive, behavioural, and affective responses to partners’ affectionate and sexual touch. My doctoral research examines whether changes in couples’ sexual communication over the course of a couples’ intervention for Provoked Vestibulodynia predict better treatment outcomes for couples (e.g., improved pain and sexual outcomes).